Star Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar suffered a major blow as he lost to Bahrain's Adam Batirov in the opening round of the ongoing 18th edition of the Asian Games here on Sunday.
The two-time Olympic medallist slumped to a shocking 3-5 defeat at the hands of Batirov in the 75 kg freestyle category, thus ruling himself out of the race for the gold medal.
Despite maintaining the initial lead of two points, the Indian wrestler could not hold his nerves and gave away two consecutive points to his opponent which led to his eventual defeat.
Sushil, who is yet to clinch an Asian Games gold, can still fight for the bronze medal through the repechage.
Meanwhile, another Indian wrestler Sandeep Tomar kicked off his campaign in the prestigious quadrennial event on a positive note as he won his opening bout against Turkmenistan's Rustem Nazarov 12-8 in the 57 kg freestyle category.